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Sentra rolled out a purpose-built data security solution today, designed to help organizations adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot while maintaining compliance and protecting sensitive enterprise information.
The vendor stated that the new Sentra Copilot security capability provides organizations with visibility into who can access sensitive content across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, prevents the overexposure of employee and user data, and automatically applies sensitivity labels through an integration with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for M365 Copilot.
Sentra positioned the offering as a way to ensure Copilot adoption aligns with enterprise security and compliance requirements.
Copilot’s productivity gains and the data risks they introduce
Sentra framed Copilot’s embedding across Microsoft 365 applications as a potential multiplier for existing data exposure problems. The company cited recent research indicating that more than 15% of business-critical files are exposed due to oversharing and excessive permissions. Sentra said those risks are often exacerbated by redundant, unused, stale, and trivial (RUST) data, over-permissioned access, and incomplete sensitivity labeling — factors that, the vendor argues, increase Copilot’s exposure surface and the size of any potential “blast radius.”
“Microsoft 365 Copilot is quickly becoming an integral part for all organizations’ workflows, which shouldn’t come at the expense of data leaks or overexposure of data,” said Yair Cohen, vice president of product and co-founder of Sentra. “Sentra’s data security platform gives security teams full visibility and control over their data assets in Microsoft 365 so their organizations have the freedom to innovate without unnecessary risks.”
Channel Insider recently spoke with Derek Ashmore, a principal consultant who advises clients on AI best practices. He, like many others, views AI security as a necessary step in any implementation process.
“I challenge anyone to name a technology that someone couldn’t, and hasn’t, taken and misused for harm,” Ashmore said. “Just like any tool, there are steps you need to take and guardrails you have to put into place to mitigate risk for you and your clients.”
What Sentra’s Copilot security delivers for MSPs and IT teams
According to the announcement, Sentra’s platform brings four core capabilities to Microsoft 365 environments:
Discovery and classification
Sentra catalogs and classifies sensitive and critical data across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, providing security teams with a single inventory of content that Copilot can surface.
Data access governance
The solution maps who has permissions to each file containing sensitive data, and provides views and filters designed to highlight over-permissioning. Sentra said administrators can use those controls to enforce least privilege and to sanitize or remove unnecessary exposure.
Identity and user credentials are key target areas for threat actors. Recent research from Silverfort reveals that many organizations believe they are mature, yet still lack fundamental protections and processes.
Automatic labeling and DLP integration
Sentra can automatically apply Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) sensitivity labels based on customizable business logic, identify missing or incorrect labels, and integrate those labels with Microsoft Purview DLP for M365 Copilot to support enforced governance.
Continuous monitoring and remediation
The platform continuously monitors MPIP sensitivity labels and automatically remediates missing or incorrect labels to maintain consistent M365 Copilot DLP governance over time.
Sentra said the offering is intended for organizations seeking to pair Copilot productivity gains with data-centric security controls. The vendor directs interested readers to its website for further information on the Microsoft 365 Copilot security use case.
Sentra isn’t the only company focusing on supporting Copilot users. Learn more about how Zensai’s recent Pax8 collaboration is bringing training to more SMBs worldwide.
